Up

Rating – *****

It takes something rather special for a film to make your shed a tear within the first ten minutes. But the characters are so perfectly realised and the story told so skilfully, you’ll already care this much. Pixar are master storytellers, fluent in the language of cinema. Almost every new film can lay legitimate claim to being “their best yet!” I should probably lay off Dreamworks, but this is yet another shining example of how hopelessly inferior their body of work feels in comparison.

Pixar refined then perfected their formidable arsenal of rendering tools. They no longer have the distraction of breaking new ground with CG fur (Monsters Inc) or water (Finding Nemo) It’s all been solved so now they can simply concentrate of making them serve the story. This technical plateau is illustrated quite literally in Up, in fact it is located in the jungles of South America, where most of the story unfolds. It’s a wonderful hybrid of adventure elements from The Lost World and Around The World In 80 Days, guided by a simple yet heartfelt story which should resonate with any human being with a soul. Crucially, Pixar also know how to make their films genuinely funny and exciting. We’re even introduced to a cast of talking dogs which aren’t annoying! From the moment elderly Carl Fredricksen leaves the ground in his rustic house supported by thousands of rainbow coloured balloons, Up possesses a wistful and enchanting tone which few can match.